Will Beets Overwinter?

Monday, December 04, 2006

We had a fierce, wintry wind blowing through Washington, D.C., today, but in the garden, my beet plants showed no apparent worry about the plummeting temperatures. At their centers, the plants were showing off tiny, spring-green-colored leaves, almost defiant against the cold December days and nights that lie ahead.

Looking at them another way, the plants actually appeared sort of... Christmas-y, with their mix of red and green. How 'bout that? Inadvertent, natural holiday decor in the garden. (OK, maybe that's a stretch, but what can I say? I have Christmas on the brain!)

The new beet greens perhaps give me a false sense of hope, though, because it's probably unlikely that I will get any good size beets out of these plants before the hard winter sets in. Clearly I must have started them too late. I sowed the seeds in September.

Does anyone know: Will beets overwinter in Zone 7?